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Royal Mint, London

Image: The Royal Victorian Medal - Edward VII Silver (Specimen)

Source: Museum Victoria

The history of the British Royal Mint is over a thousand years old. The Mint descends in an unbroken link from the scattered workshops of the moneyers of Anglo-Saxon London, through Roman mints to a large modern coining plant in South Wales. From the end of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century the mint was located at the Tower of London, where it was spread out around the perimeter between the inner and the outer walls. However lack of space in the Tower during the Napoleonic Wars forced the construction of a new mint building across the road at Tower Hill.

In the 1960s work associated with decimalisation resulted in a lack of space that again forced the Mint to look for new accommodation. A site in South Wales fifteen miles north west of Cardiff was chosen, and the Mint has been there ever since.

The Royal Mint is a department of government, with its primary responsibility being the provision of the United Kingdom coinage. In addition, it strikes coins for more than 100 other countries.

On 1 April 1975 the Mint was established as a Government Trading Fund, operationally very similar to a government-owned company. On 1 April 1990 the Royal Mint became an Executive Agency, providing it with greater management freedom to develop its business. The British Royal Mint has maintained its position as the world's leading exporting Mint.